Highway schools take precautions for planned water outage

THE two-day water outage affects everyone in the highway area, including schools that have to make contingency plans to cope with Durban’s heat and humidity at this time of year.

Some schools will be closing, which means parents who work have to make alternate arrangement for their children.

Various schools in the highway area have taken precautions for the upcoming water outages tomorrow and Wednesday.

Last week the city issued a press release advising consumers of a, “Western aqueduct water supply system interruption,” in which it outlined the planned shutdown for the entire affected system.

ALSO READ: Highway residents urged to prepare for 36 hour water shutdown

“The City would like to inform residents regarding a planned water shut down for the entire Western Aqueduct system on 18 February until 19 February,” said the press release issued by eThekwini Municipality’s spokesperson, Msawakhe Mayisela.

John Wesley School in Pinetown has asked their learners to stay at home for the next two days.

“While we do have a water management system at school, it is not designed to deal with a total shutdown of water supply,” said Principal, Darren Tarr in a newsletter sent to parents. Tarr also highlighted the health risk factor.

“(Without water) the lack of sanitation is severe and we would be grossly negligent if we allowed our children and our staff members to be exposed to these risks.”

“We do not have a sufficient water supply in our tanks and, therefore, school will be closed for all children on Wednesday,” said principal, Elaine David in a statement sent to parents.